In general, information extraction technology is directed at detecting structured data within unstructured data. For example, a string of text may include one or more attributes of an item. The text may be parsed and analyzed to extract those attributes. However, current information extraction technologies may lack the refinement to differentiate between attributes and phrases that merely contain words that appear to represent an attribute. In a search engine, this deficiency may produce undesirable responses to a search query. For example, a user search query may include the string “redwood.” A conventional search engine may parse the word “red” from the search query, recognize the word as a color attribute value, and return items having the attribute value “red.” Such a response is not desirable and was likely not what the user was searching for.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings. Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present disclosure.